20 Examples of Verbs in Post-Preterite

Verbs in Post-Preterite

The postpreterite verbs they indicate a conditional situation or the possibility of something happening based on another independent event also happening (or not happening, sometimes). For example me) would know, (your) would you have, (he) would walk.

For this reason, at this time of indicative mood it is also known as a simple conditional.

Postpreterite verbs thus reflect a subordination and are usually subordinate to another verb, usually the Subjunctive mode, which is the one that expresses the condition.

For example: Would buy (post-past tense of the indicative) that car if it had(past tense of the sujunctive) enough money.

Sometimes the subordinate verb is omitted, which can be taken for granted depending on the context. For example: I would go right now. (the underlying idea is that I would do it if I could / if I was encouraged / if they allowed me)

Examples of postpreterite verbs

Use in journalism

In journalistic discourse, especially, postpreterite verbs are often used to indicate uncertainty about a probable fact, often referred to among language scholars as "conditional rumor ”.

For example: President would resign this week.This phrase leaves the door open for that to happen or not, and can almost be taken as a rumor. The recipient will hear this and may not even be aware of the circumstance that may make him resign.

A formula of kindness

Another special case of using the postpreterite without subordinating itself to a subjunctive verb is the kindness formulas. For example: ¿Could you get me the books from the shelf?

Many times people, when asking for a favor, use the expression could you instead of expressing directly Do me the favor of… or Do me the favor of…? In those cases there is an omitted but implicit complementary verb, since it is understood that, by asking for a favor in this way, what is really meant is If you were so kind, you could ...

The verb "have"

With the verb "to have" a special situation occurs: it can be presented as an independent postpreterite or as a compound verb called anteposterite (or compound conditional).

The simple conditional expression is known to be accepted: If they called the event earlier, there would be more people. In this case, it is assumed that the event has not yet occurred and that this expression is a kind of warning or advice.

But it could also be said If they had called the event earlier, there bad been more people. In this In this case, the expression already loses the character of advice and becomes a judgment about something that is no longer can be changed.

The rules of accentuation

All postpreterite verbs can be conjugated in the first, second, and third person, and in the singular as well as in the plural.

However, the accentuation rule is unique: as the sound with the greatest force in the word is the 'i', which is always combined with an 'a', a hiatus that has preponderance and generates that the orthographic accent. In this way, it can be said that all postpreterite verbs are stressed.